|
Return To the Celestial Review (This does NOT open a new window) Return To the Index (This does NOT open a new window) Note, to make reading multi-part stories easier, story links (links with dejanews.com or www.qz.to, NOT the review or profile links) will open up a new browser window. When you are done reading the story, or section of the story simply CLOSE the story window. |
|
"Assignation" by Jane Urquhart (cyber-romance becomes real) 10, 10, 10
"Assignation" by Jane Urquhart. (Janey98@hotmail.com). The word "Assignation" has three meanings. The only one relevant to this story is "3. An appointment for a meeting between lovers; a tryst." The subject of the present case study is a woman who holds an honorable place within her community but writes salacious stories, and release of this information would be disastrous. She has jokingly suggested to an on-line admirer that he ought to try to detect her true identity. Surprisingly, he has made the attempt and has succeeded; and now she must pay the piper by meeting with him. She is not really distressed. "In fact, she was filled with delight. She chose to believe that her very lack of choice released her from any possible twinge of conscience. Her husband and children would be at the grandparents' cottage, where she had to be the following day. No one would ever know where she had been that night; no one would be hurt. Moreover, having corresponded for some time with her soon-to-be lover, she was confident that he would make her adventure worth remembering for the rest of her life. Fantasies were all very well, but reality would be vastly better." I'm not going to tell you how this all plays out. Instead I'll tell you how I (moi, as the characters in this story might say) would deal with this. If someone broke my cover and invited me to have a romantic tryst with him, I would have him assassinated, as plain and simple as that. The characters in this story each have their own personalities, and they are each devoted to a spouse to whom they intend to remain faithful and with whom they plan to continue to build a relationship. That makes four individual personalities, without counting children or other collaterals, as military analysts would call them. While I immensely enjoy the fantasies I read and write about, an actual romantic involvement with someone else would affect not only me but these other three personalities as well. I may decide to pull back, and he may not, or vice versa. My active affection for this man might alter my unconscious actions toward my husband, who would respond equally unconsciously toward me in such a way as to fuck up something beautiful that he and I have worked on. And while he would be trusting me to be acting honestly, I would be acting under a different set of rules about which he would know nothing. Etc. No, it would be easier to kill the fantasy lover as soon as he stepped over the line. As far as I am concerned, "Fatal Attraction" is a book of the bible. I don't think I'll really have to kill anyone. As the nuns used to say in elementary school, "A word to the wise is sufficient." Fortunately, the author has no such qualms - at least not in her story. Her story is sexier than my morose cogitations. And since the story is a fantasy rather than a newspaper account of a stalker emerging from cyberspace, I found it to be a simply excellent story. This is not a Janey story, and there's no reason to believe that it's really autobiographical or even auto-fanciful; but it was certainly erotic - both auto and otherwise. Ratings for "Assignation" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 10 Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10 |